giving thanks-part 2 (serious eye candy!)

The annual Haynes-Brown-Burlington Thanksgiving Day Photo. Thanks for the shot Glo!

Silly sisters in the kitchen.My firstborn-Robert.Child #2- Esther.Mom and child #3, Cecilia Cate, or CC.

Robert with John Glacier and Margret.

Scott defends the goal.Hand ball!

Glo and Scott- thank you for a lovely an delicious Thanksgiving at your place! And for the great photos. XXOO

giving thanks-part 1

Gloria and Scott Brown hosted our family Thanksgiving this year. Have a look at the appetizers. Front and center: apricots wrapped in bacon with sage. Those went fast folks! Granny brought crafts for the kids. Scott investigates the rules of Battleship with CC. Oh my- what a splendid table. . . .

Robert abuses his Papaw.

Margret and her baby son, John Glacier joined our feast this year.

I feasted on his lovely baby lusciousness.

A surprise feast. This morning Robert and Esther worked together (!) to make breakfast for the family. Esther took this photo of the spread.

I am thankful for great friends and family. Thanks be to God!!

Mmmmm, autumn

After raking a pile of pine needles in our neighbors yard, the kids laid down to look at the sky.
Wow.After an undefeated season Robert's team had a soccer banquet. At the banquet he got this trophy of which he is INFINITELY proud.Esther and CC are having breathing treatments a plenty this allergy season. CC, ever the quick study, can already do it by herself.Esther conked out on my lap last night. It has been a long time since she has slept on my lap. I kinda wanted to sit like that all night. Was it the coziness of sitting with my child or the novelty of Esther being quiet and still?

We love Uncle JP.

JP spent his birthday with us last weekend. We had a great time!
Activities included: lots of football and baseball, a scavenger hunt in Decatur, a fabuloso b-day dinner at our house and bowling. Did I mention the massive leaf clean-up outside? 26 bags of leaves. . . thanks JP!

Pictures from the scavenger hunt- A steeple. A Montana license plate:

A sidewalk:

A crosswalk:

Pat fed us some lovely dinner before bowling on Friday.Yummy burritos!

At the alley: Tim, Erin and Rob

Moi and Rob.

Burlington brothers.Leslie, Beth and me.The brothers and Mike.Erin's hair gets mysteriously longer whenever she goes bowling. . . Happy children eating Chik-fil-A for breakfast.
Work!

JP-come back soon and bring Meghan next time OK?

I love you Portland forever. . . final.

Following the shoot Eleanor, Sheryl and I made our way to Paley's Place for dinner. Check it out yourself: http://www.paleysplace.net/. We wanted to find a unique Portland restaurant and we found THE ONE. All of their food comes from local sustainable farming. The dining room even features beautiful black and white photographs of their farmers. My butternut squash and pear soup smacked of AUTUMN. Ahhhhh. So taken were we with Paley's Place that we all purchased their cookbook hot off the presses. I spent a wistful night in my room at the Nines and alas, the time to fly home arrived.
Me, Tanika and Sheryl at Portland airport.

I loved my Frontier airline experience. Cool wing art over the Denver mountains.

Denver airport.

Sheryl and I shared the first leg of our trip (to Denver) with Crystal and Jessica.

Sheryl, Crystal and me. Sheryl, Crystal and Jessica.Back in Atlanta, Lindsay surprised me by bringing the kids to the airport to pick me up. Thanks Linsday!

I brought treats from Voodoo Doughnuts of Portland (http://www.voodoodoughnut.com/) for the kids. Big hit:

Robert with cocoa puff donut.

Esther with Froot Loop donut.

CC with Oreo donut.

Life with the kids

Robert's left front tooth dangled stubbornly in its place for a week or more. He even started to scare the girls with it.Then, it came out. I took the girls to Ikea last week during a successful attempt to re-organize the flow of laundry in our house. Turns out that Ikea had revamped their restaurant. New chairs and a new play area.

Esther's outfit of choice that day? Two shirts and two dresses. Gotta love the layering. Somebody call Tim Gunn. . . .

CC still has the Laurie signature look.